2005 Chrysler Crossfire Roadster

In the status game, a trophy car works better in convertible form.

BARRY WINFIELD

Jun 1, 2004

In the Rolling Stones song "Jumpin' Jack Flash," Mick Jagger sings about being born in a crossfire hurricane. We're not sure what a crossfire hurricane is, but we know a Crossfire roadster when we see one, and it's a gas, gas, gas. After all, there's not much wrong with the proposition of an Austrian-built convertible with distinctive styling and the mechanical underpinnings of a Mercedes-Benz SLK beneath the surface. Especially at a price about 10 grand cheaper than the Mercedes original.

Well, okay, there are a few things on the negative side of the report card, but they're probably not bad enough to dissuade affluent buyers from this "reward" purchase. In February, even before the roadster version hit showrooms, Chrysler's Crossfire coupe was enjoying greater sales than its most obvious rivals, the Audi TT and the BMW Z4, in the trophy-car segment. Since this kind of car works better as a convertible in the status game, the DaimlerChrysler sales picture is likely to get even better.

Chrysler's advance vehicle engineering guys say the roadster was developed concurrently with the coupe. That allowed the engineers to anticipate any structural discontinuities in the topless car and have some of the reinforcements in place from the outset. The project was clearly aided by the fact that the donor SLK floorpan was designed for that car's convertible mission.

The stiff cowl, the cross-car bulkhead behind the seats, and the transmission tunnel resist bending and torsional forces quite well. They do it even better when helped along by 100 or so pounds of metal straps and gussets that Chrysler added to the roadster's structure. Subjectively, the new car feels extremely stiff.

Most road impacts are more clearly discerned at the wheel than through the structure, which is kind of ironic given Mercedes-Benz's long attachment (now ended) to the recirculating-ball steering mechanism the roadster inherited from the SLK, largely because of its good impact-isolation characteristics. With the second-generation SLK now in production, every Benz model has been switched to rack-and-pinion steering.

Chrysler's designers thought it crucial that the roadster look good with the top up or down. We think they achieved that goal, even retaining the coupe's rear boattail design to great effect. The backlight is heated glass, and necessarily quite small, producing blind spots at the rear three-quarter aspect with the top up. Of course, this little inconvenience evaporates like cigar smoke in the slipstream when the top's down.

The top takes about 22 seconds of dancing fabric, waving panels, and articulating frames to stow itself, ending up completely concealed under a tidy tonneau cover. It's not quite fully powered, requiring the manual release of a slightly awkward lock handle and an upward push to initiate the action. Closing the softtop takes a few seconds longer and requires you to pull down and twist that same handle.